"Some years ago, my father came home with a carton of old letters that time and humidity had compacted into wads of barely legible paper."

So begins "A Venetian Affair" by Andrea di Robilant. It is a beautifully written love story set in Venice 250 years ago. The main characters, Andrea Memmo and famous writer, Giustiniana Wynn are actually the authors ancestors. The author is descended from the Memmo family, one of the great families of the Republic of Venice. He opens the book by talking of how his father was obsessed with crates of old correspondence found in his Venetian Palace as a child.

When the family lost their fortune and had to sell the ancestral home, Di Robilant's father took with him only a carton of letters, written in code. One of the great obsessions of his life was to crack the code of these letters. He passed this desire onto his son, Andrea, who wih his father, cracked the code in the letters to discover a truly remarkable story that included important royalty, politicians and even the infamous Cassanova. This is just the prologue!

THE AFFAIR-
Andrea Memmo was among the last of the great statesmen of Venice (50 years after the start of the book, Napolean begins his European coquest). Giustiniana Wynn was a member of upper class society but was the child of an English diplomat and a Venetian woman with a questionable past. While she could move about in society and was even much admired for her her beauty and wit, she would never have been considered a match for Memmo. The two met when she was 16 and he was 24 in the home of Consul Joseph Smith, which was one of the leading intellectual and artistic salons in the city.

The two immediately fell into a passionate "first love" carried out chastely with public meetings at Smith's home and a series of gushing letters. They spend a couple of years blissfully in love, scampering about Venetian society, surrounded by intellectuals and poets. By the time Giustiniana was 18, she and Andrea were determined to be together forever. It is important to note that they were aware they could never be married and so they set about an elaborate plan for her to marry Smith (an octogenarian) so they could carry on their love affair and possibly marry after his death (due to her elevated status).

What follows is the account of almost 15 years worth of intrigue as the two lovers struggle to be together. They attempt to marry Giustiniana off to wealthy old man multiple times, apply to the Venetian Government to marry each other, Giustiniana goes to Paris during the 7 Years War and then to England. The lovers deal with jealousy and occasionally become tired of waiting for each other but always turn towards each other in the end.

Among their greatest supporters was the writer Cassanova (who attempted to seduce Giustiniana-but failed). He arranged meetings for them and procured a small house for their trysts. He became a confidant of Giustiniana's and even helped her deal with a pregnancy - for which he was later arrested. He was so taken by their love for each other that he wrote out what he knew of their story in accounts of his own life.

So as not to spoil the ending I will say that the lovers eventually find contentment (though I will not say with whom).

PROS-

I thought that this book was meticulous researched. The author used Cassanova's accounts, the letters from Memmo that were his father's and archived correspondence of Giustiniana's to trace a love story that lasted an entire lifetime.

Instead of just presenting the letters in a research format, Di Robilant takes the situations described in the writings and creates a narrative that reads like a well written novel.

The language is beautiful. Di Robilant started his writing career as a journalist for La Stampa (Italian newspaper) but the writing is so lyrical that I hope he concentrates on novels or historical works from now on. Maybe it is because he is Italian. I don't know- but I thought this was very easy reading and very lush.

CONS-
The scams that these two people pulled over and over again started to get a little grating. As these two entered their thirties I just wanted them to face facts and grow up!

The book gets a little draggy in the end. I really wished the author would have summarized a few years and moved on. I felt he did not pay enough attention to Andrea's political career and Giustiniana's writing. I am always interested in strong historical women, such as Veronica Franco, the Venetian Poetess, and I wanted to know more about Giustiniana's intellectual life.




Recommended: Yes